People grant protection to works on the provision that these works become freely available after N years. The copyright industry just goes ahead and extends this unilaterally, just because they want to. Why should the public keep up its end of the deal when the copyright industry doesn't?
I still don't see what this has to do with grandparent's point that this was affecting piracy. I certainly agree with your point. I just don't see how it's relevant to the points of either parent or grandparent.
